with us, friend.
David: Thank you, geoff.
Geoff: Friday marked Ukraine's
100th day of war against Russia.
The devastation is clear from
the images of destroyed cities
and bodies in the streets.
Ukrainian president volodomyr
zelenskyy says at least tens of
thousands of civilians have
died.
The true toll of this war has
been harder to calculate.
Ali rogin spoke with one
Ukrainian living in Kyiv about
the reality of the ongoing
fighting.
Ali: Joining me now is igor
novikov, an entrepreneur and
former advisor to president
volodymyr zelenskyy.
Mr. Novikov, thank you so much
for being here.
You have been in Ukraine largely
for the last hundred days, along
with your family.
What has that been like for all
of you?
Mr. Novikov: Well, thank you for
having me, first of all.
Well, it was incredibly surreal.
I mean, I think sooner or later
I'm going to write a book about
this experience, because nothing
in this world can prepare you
for the cruise missiles, for
that, you know, brutality and
barbarity like happening 15
kilometers away from your house.
From that uncertainty, kind of
not knowing whether the Russians
are actually going to get to the
parts of Kyiv.
You're staying with your kids at
or not.
So, yeah, it was surreal, but it
was also a lesson.
Ali: And what would you say are
the lessons that you have
learned so far now that we're
100 days in?
Mr. Novikov: Well, first of all,
I mean, we expect the
unexpected.
I mean, a lot of, there was a
lot of talk about this war.
But, you know, one thing is
talking about it and being sure
it's going to happen.
Another is waking up the first
morning to the sounds of a
cruise missile ending like ten
kilometers away from you.
So that was the first lesson.
The second one was kind of you
really need to kind of cherish
every moment and kind of have
meaning to what you do because,
you know, when life can take you
turns unexpectedly again.
-- Tau-turns
unexpectedly again.
So thirdly and probably most
importantly for me, I mean, I
can be very thought of myself as
a decent father, but, you know,
I was really bad at it, you
know, given that second chance
actually kind of going through
this experience, I have
reevaluated everything.
Ali: A unique parenting
experience, to be sure.
I want to turn to the pace of
the war itself.
I know you have said that you
believe this summer is going to
be decisive in terms of the
direction of the war.
So I want to ask you about this.
Why do you believe that the
summer's going to be decisive?
Mr. Novikov: Well, first of all,
it's a completely different war.
I use two terms to describe it
now, and they might sound a bit
dramatic, but it's true.
I mean, it's become a slow and
boring war.
Slow because I mean, there is
the front is quite short at the
moment.
So the most of the fighting is
happening in donbas and the
intensity has increased quite a
lot quite dramatically.
Why the war is boring is because
it's happening.
You know, it's it's 100 days
already and people are looking
elsewhere.
So and as people started to lose
interest in this war, it's an
invitation for Russia to kind of
to go further.
If Putin has operational or
tactical success in the
battlefield, if he manages to
drag this war out, it's up until
October or November.
You know, the winter is coming.
So the European union will once
again be blackmailed with, you
know, utility bills and gas
supplies and everything.
And he's going to try and create
as much chaos as possible.
I think we're going to see a
major hybrid attempt at
destabilizing global economy
from Russia.
They already they've taken
hostage the world food supply
pretty much, you know, with
blocking, you know, Ukraine's
grain exports.
But I think with the situation,
with everything that's happening
in the economy, you know, if
Russia attacks supply globally,
you know, that's going to create
a very painful situation for the
ordinary people elsewhere
outside of Ukraine.
And once again, that would be
the test of whether we going to
stay united and we're going to
see this war through to the
Ukrainian victory.
Ali: In the time that we have
left, I want to talk about the
fact that presidents Biden and
zelenskyy have both said that
they believe the only way this
war ends is by diplomatic means.
But how far away do you believe
that that level of diplomatic
talk remains?
Mr. Novikov: Well, my personal
assessment is that we're
probably, you know, the
furthest away from a diplomatic
solution that we've ever been
during the course of this war.
Why?
Because, you know, the situation
on the battlefield determines
the outcome of the diplomatic
dialog.
And at the moment, the
determining factor on the
battlefield is uncertainty.
You know, there's no one nobody
can say for sure what's going to
happen in this war within the
next few weeks or months.
So I don't I don't personally
see that avenue just yet, but I
fully agree with the president.
At every war in human history,
sooner or later ends in
diplomacy.
Unconditional surrender is also
diplomacy.
Ali: Igor novikov, former
advisor to president zelenskyy
and entrepreneur, thank you so
much for your time.
Mr. Novikov: Thank you for